A True Coward
Posted June 27, 2007, 9:01 AM ET

The startling news about the deaths of Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit have touched a nerve.

It's not very often that we talk wrestling on the radio show or on the blog, unless it involves our buddy, "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. To this day, Flair is one of the most humble and generous sports figures that I've ever encountered.

The talk today is of another wrestling star, Chris Benoit. He was better known as the "Canadian Crippler"....a great technician in the ring, and a guy who was certainly respected by his peers for his tenacity and work ethic.

Today, most sports fans know Benoit as a coward.

We may never know the real reasons or truth behind the slayings of Benoit's wife and seven-year-old son in their Georgia home, other than the fact that Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son. It is incomprehensible.

A week ago, Ric Flair hooked me up with some ringside seats for the Smackdown taping in Charlotte. The night of wrestling and entertainment was enjoyable...as is normally the case. On the card was Chris Benoit. Little did we know that it would be his last appearance in the ring before his untimely demise.

At the end of his match, he walked over towards our seats where he was gawking at a championship belt that was on display. It's hard to believe that later that week, the same guy would murder his wife and then his seven-year-old son.

There is more information pouring out about the slayings, and none of it makes any sense. Benoit killed his wife by tying her up, and suffocated his son. Authorities reported that the seven-year-old boy had old needle marks in his arms where he was supposedly given growth hormones.

Benoit was one sick bastard.

The officers found the wrestling star dead in his workout room in the basement of the house. Amazingly, he moped around the home for days after the brutal killings of his wife and kid before taking his own life.

Benoit might be respected by his wrestling peers for his tough demeanor in the ring....but the rest of the world now remembers him as a coward and punk.

For Nancy and Daniel, may you rest in peace, and for the "Crippler", I have one bit of advice for you....I heard Satan has a helluva figure-four hold.